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Wednesday 25th May 2011
25 May 2011
Police forces are gearing up to buy goods and services through an online e-procurement process aimed to save £30m over six years.
Fleet management is one of the main services to be purchased through the system that will go online starting in the next several weeks, a spokesman for the National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA) told FM World.
All forces in England and Wales will have the service by June next year, he said.
The National Police Procurement Hub is an electronic marketplace that allows police to make purchases from approved contracts. It streamlines the buying process, from making an order to paying for the goods and services.
“Although some forces use an electronic process for part of the procurement process, there is no other system that allows forces to do the whole process of ordering, buying, invoicing and paying online,” said a statement from the NPIA.
Other benefits include enabling forces to buy together to reduce costs and it enables small-to-medium size businesses to work more efficiently with the police service, the statement said.
"The police service is committed to delivering significant savings from better procurement,” said Sue Moffatt, head of commercial and procurement at the NPIA. “It is absolutely vital that those charged with buying goods and services have access to the tools that make them available quickly and directly to their desktop.”
The initial set up of the hub is being funded by the NPIA. Forces will start paying a subscription to use the hub at the start of the financial year 2012/2013. The NPIA will work with forces across England and Wales to negotiate and agree implementation dates.
The e-procurement process has been developed with ProcServe, part of the Oracle PartnerNetwork. ProcServe delivers other e-procurement portals including Zanzibar, OPEN, xchangewales eTrading, xchangewales eTrading for Schools and the Procurement for Housing eMarketplaces for the UK public sector.
Police forces are gearing up to buy goods and services through an online e-procurement process aimed to save £30m over six years.
Fleet management is one of the main services to be purchased through the system that will go online starting in the next several weeks, a spokesman for the National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA) told FM World.
All forces in England and Wales will have the service by June next year, he said.
The National Police Procurement Hub is an electronic marketplace that allows police to make purchases from approved contracts. It streamlines the buying process, from making an order to paying for the goods and services.
“Although some forces use an electronic process for part of the procurement process, there is no other system that allows forces to do the whole process of ordering, buying, invoicing and paying online,” said a statement from the NPIA.
Other benefits include enabling forces to buy together to reduce costs and it enables small-to-medium size businesses to work more efficiently with the police service, the statement said.
"The police service is committed to delivering significant savings from better procurement,” said Sue Moffatt, head of commercial and procurement at the NPIA. “It is absolutely vital that those charged with buying goods and services have access to the tools that make them available quickly and directly to their desktop.”
The initial set up of the hub is being funded by the NPIA. Forces will start paying a subscription to use the hub at the start of the financial year 2012/2013. The NPIA will work with forces across England and Wales to negotiate and agree implementation dates.
The e-procurement process has been developed with ProcServe, part of the Oracle PartnerNetwork. ProcServe delivers other e-procurement portals including Zanzibar, OPEN, xchangewales eTrading, xchangewales eTrading for Schools and the Procurement for Housing eMarketplaces for the UK public sector.